Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure
today to host Ella Quinn and her new book, “The Second Time Around”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this
post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Ella
and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!

Before he died,
Patience was the Earl of Worthington’s second wife. So why shouldn’t Patience
be allowed a second chance at marriage, too? Of course, finding a new husband
was not something the mother of four had ever planned on. But a surprise
encounter with her first love has suddenly made the impossible seem possible
all over again…

It seems like a
lifetime ago that Richard, Viscount Wolverton, was halfway around the world,
looking for adventure . . . while Patience, at her coming-out, was left with no
choice but to take old Worthington’s hand. Richard never forgot the woman whose
heart he yearned for—and now that he’s back, he’s not going to let her slip
away again…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT ONE:

Pulteney
Hotel, London, 1815

“And
this is Viscount Wolverton.” Patience Worthington watched as Almeria, Lady
Bellamny, smiled as she introduced the gentleman to the Duchess of Bristol.
Almeria turned her black eyes on Patience. The smile didn’t fade at all as she
said, “Wolverton, I believe you have already met the Dowager Countess of
Worthington.”

What
in God’s name is he doing here? Patience inclined her head and held out her
hand. “Indeed. The years have treated you well, my lord.”

Bowing,
he took her fingers in his. “As they have done to you, my lady.”

His
lips hovered over her hand as she prayed he would do nothing more than kiss the
air above them, but no. The devil pressed his warm, firm lips to her knuckles;
even through her gloves she could feel his touch and fought the urge to suck in
a breath. “Thank you, my lord.”

One
would think after all these years and his betrayal she would be immune to him.
And one would be wrong. She held her breath, counting—One, two, three, four,
five. Thank God—until he finally straightened and returned her hand to her.
Thank God! Patience let out the breath, yet she could not control the pounding
in her breast. It took all the control she had not to make an excuse and leave
the room. Yet, she could not do that to Dotty Stern, soon to be the Marchioness
of Merton.

“He
has been a friend for a very long time,” Almeria continued, as if she had no
idea of the havoc she had created by inviting Wolverton. “Though he hardly ever
comes to Town.”

“Well,
my dear,” Lord Bellamny said, “you couldn’t be here so often if it wasn’t for
the help he gives me. Someone must assist me in my experiments.”

“Very
true, my dear.”

Patience
made the mistake of glancing up at the same moment Richard Wolverton stared
down at her. His amber eyes smoldered as they had the last time she had seen
him, only days before her marriage to the old Earl of Worthington.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR BIO:

Bestselling author
Ella Quinn’s studies and other jobs have always been
on the serious side. Reading historical romances, especially Regencies, were
her escape. Eventually her love of historical novels led her to start writing
them. She has just finished her first series, The Marriage Game, and her new
series, The Worthingtons, began in April 2016.

She is married to her wonderful husband of
over thirty years. They have a son and two beautiful granddaughters, and a dog.
After living in the South Pacific, Central America, North Africa, England and
Europe, she and her husband decided to make their dreams come true and are now
living on a sailboat cruising the Caribbean and North America. Europe is next!

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and
Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not
Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are
solely responsible for the giveaway prize.

Hello lovelies! It gives me great
pleasure today to host Liz Crowe and her new book, “Tapped”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.

Be sure to make it to the end of this
post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card! Also, come back daily to interact with Liz
and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!

For Austin,
it's a life-altering moment that sets him on a path away from his birthright,
while Evelyn must face her fears about committing to a man considered the
playboy of the micro-brewing world.

The power of
preconceived notions nearly tears them apart—until they meet up with brew
master Ross, who opens their eyes to a deeper, even more erotic connection. But
three strong personalities don’t always make for the best emotional mix and
when a simple misunderstanding causes chaos, it’s up to Ross to repair the
tattered shreds of their relationship.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT ONE:

Sensing
the heat of Evelyn’s fury as he finalized another large order, he excused
himself and made his way toward the restroom. The tuning-fork sensation had
morphed into a dull ache centered in his gut, which steadily made its way down
to his balls.

When
he emerged—after splashing water on his face enough times to calm the hardening
in his jeans—he almost plowed straight into her. He gripped her arms to keep
her from falling and the impulses that had bounced around in his brain since
the morning nearly brought him to his knees. He dropped his hands and looked
away, swallowing back the urge to say something, anything, to convince her he
wasn’t such a bad guy.

“Sorry.”

Her
voice was flat. He took a step back, stopped only when his butt hit the wall.
The space between them filled with near-visible silence, but he didn’t move.

“I
don’t know how I’m doing it, but the longer we work together, the more sales I
make, and the more you hate me. Clue me in here, Benedict. I thought sales were
the goal of the day.” He crossed his arms, holding them close to his chest so
she couldn’t gauge how shaky his hands had gotten.

She
swallowed, and he watched the exquisite warm peach hue of her skin redden.
Admiring the line of her neck, her jaw, the plump fullness of her lower lip as
she bit it, a nervous tic he’d love to come to love, if she’d let him, Austin
sensed himself falling deeper into a very scary hole. Her ongoing silence took
on a life of its own.

“Well?
I left my secret-sales-goal decoder ring at home. You obviously have a
different agenda for today. I get it. ‘Prove to the rich boy he doesn’t have
what it takes’ is fine, but we could have saved some time if you’d just told me
first.”

She
opened her lips, then pressed them together and shouldered past him. He
watched, fascinated, as his hand reached out of its own accord and snagged her
arm. She stopped, stared at it, then up at him. When he realized the blue of
her eyes was brighter because of tears, he hesitated. Female tears always
unnerved him, but his chest tightened in a thoroughly alarming way at the
thought of having caused her unhappiness.

He
let go. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to…”

In
a split second, her beautiful face was within inches of his. “Don’t flatter
yourself. I’m just pissed off. You’ve had that effect on me since I first laid
eyes on you, so yeah, I guess I set you up. But apparently, all your
country-club, private-school time has been worth it. Bullshitting comes
naturally to you. And that’s all this job is. A whole barrel of bullshit.”

She stomped away before he could speak or,
even better, grab her and kiss her. The space she vacated quivered with anger.
But her crisp perfume stayed in his nose and he had to clench his hands into
fists to keep from shoving her up against the wall and kissing her until she
saw it his way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GUEST POST:

I recently had
the privilege of attending something that was presented to me as “sales
training” for my day job—that of convincing people to sell and /or buy what for
most of them will be the biggest investment (or two or three) they every make.

“Real Estate”
in other words.

Said training
was to occur over four straight days, 8:30-4 at a local hotel’s generic
conference room. It was called “Ninja Training” which, as you might imagine
gave rise to all manner of joking around my real estate office about leather
pants and throwing stars. We can be a pretty funny bunch when we try.

But those four
days changed my life.

How does this
affect US—that is to say, “You and Me”— the collective unwashed masses of
scribblers clamoring for attention from readers, agents and bigger/ better/
deeper pocketed publishers?

Pretty
directly. Allow me to explain.

The first day
we pondered the concept of “Abundance” vs. “Scarcity.” Humans tend to operate
from the “scarcity” side of the spectrum. There are only “so many readers” (or
houses, or buyers, whatever). There are a limited number of these
readers/agents and they are all “used up” by the best seller types or those
lucky enough to already HAVE an agent. It’s the proverbial “glass half empty”
view, really but with a bit more around it. In short, it’s defeatist, limiting,
and the mindset of a victim. (“It’s EL James/James Patterson/Lee Child’s fault
I’m not a best seller.” By way of example)

“Abundance” on
the other hand, is the mindset we were encouraged to contemplate. This way of
thinking leads to a more positive frame of mind but it’s not “smile and the
world smiles with you” brainless positivity either. It’s embracing the actual
reality that there are, indeed MORE readers out there. They’re created every
day (many of them BY the EL James/James Pattersons of the world). There truly
is no limit to what you could do, if you use this sort of thinking as you
ponder the pile of edits, revisions, submissions, queries, rejections,
promotional opportunities from both legit and non-legit entities—in short, your
“daily business as an author in 2016.”

That first day
of Going Ninja as we came to call it, also involved what was even more
life-changing for Yours Truly. Mainly because it encouraged me to dump my
victim-hood and take on the mantle of “player.”

Yeah, I’ve
written about plenty of Players in my books, including TAPPED which has not
one, but TWO strong male players, plus and equally strong female. I think I
created those people so as to affirm that their hard work combined with a
positive outlook on life creates success.

Wait….What?

I “created
characters” with personalities more like I WISHED I had?

Um…hold up.

I already knew
that to be a “Player” meant being the opposite of a “victim.” I’d written
countless of these people, both men and women, many of whom had come through
some pretty tough circumstances to get to the top of their personal mountain,
whatever it was. In some cases, entire novels were written by me about HOW they
went from Victim to Player.

And here I was,
sitting at one of those annoying skinny tables with a sweating pitcher of water
in the middle, just out of my reach, surrounded by colleagues eagerly
scratching down notes on the fancy Ninja-labeled legal pads, with my mouth
hanging open as I pondered my own victimhood of the past, oh, 24 months of so
and accepting that only I had the power to change it. I was only a victim inside my own head.

Whew. Heavy
stuff. But seriously, would I remember any of it later?

I assure you
that I have and I’m here to tell YOU today, dear Pro Rookie column loyalists,
that the Time of Our Victimhood Is Over.

Let me bring it
down to the nitty gritty.

You’re slaving
over a new manuscript while trying to figure out ways to boost your
reviews/ratings on other books. You just got “paid” for a month of “sales” that
were utterly depressing.

You owe money
to your editor, your cover artist, the four or five promo venues you use and
trust. Oh, there’s that pesky “groceries” thing and perhaps “heat” for the
winter and “shelter” in the form of a rent or mortgage payment.

It’s January.
It’s a Tuesday. It’s cloudy and cold but doesn’t have the decency to snow and
be pretty for a few hours. You open your email to find three fresh rejections
from agents you were sure would adore your attempt at a sexy thriller novel.

You are a good
Liz Follower and usually avoid reading your reviews but happen to scan down the
page of one of your books and find three or four scathing, 1-star lengthy
diatribes on the novel you just spent $400 to give away free on bookbub. The
dog’s puking on the carpet. The laundry is at avalanche-level DefCon 5. On Facebook you see three or four new posts
about authors who used to read YOUR books who’ve made the New York Times Best
Seller list after a few months of publishing.

Pretty dismal,
no?

This was me, a
few weeks ago.

But thanks to
the time I spent pondering the fact that all of these things could either:

1. drive me
under the table in a ball, thumb in mouth, cradling a bourbon bottle to my
chest at 10 a.m. OR

2. drive me
away from the house, out for a walk, to yoga, to a coffee shop to meet a friend
who had no clue as to my misery, to anything that would take my mind off all of
it for a short while and allow me a re-set.

Either way,
only I had the power to determine which direction I would take.

Because I am a
Player.

Some call this
the “fake it ‘til you make it” mindset and it could be taken that way for
certain. In real estate, we are more or less required to “dress the part and
show up” for things like office sales meetings, learning sessions, to the
office as many times a week as we can, in order to help us “feel” like we are
actually successful until such time as we actually ARE.

This is all a
little warm and fuzzy this month but hey! It’s January! It’s
start-all-over-fresh time, right?

So this is your
Liz Pep Talk moment and I encourage you to heed it. Don’t be a Victim—this
means that when you are tempted to go on your Facebook page, your Twitter feed,
your Google Plus whatever the heck that is, your Pinterest feed and just pour
your sorry-for-yourself guts out all over it, stop, take a breath, and walk
away.

Put positive
out into the world instead. I’m willing to bet you’ll get it back, you Player
you.

Cheers,

Liz

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR BIO:

Amazon
best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing
expert, and soccer fan, Liz Croweis a Kentucky
native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann
Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an
eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.

Her early
forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre,
“Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested
less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”). More recently
she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are
more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set
in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful
real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her
books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has
something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete
casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination
long after the book is finished.

Don’t ever ask
her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and
Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not
Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are
solely responsible for the giveaway prize.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host
Dixie Tenny and her new book, “How to Find Your Dream Dog”! For other stops on her iRead Book Tour and to check out the other exciting types of tour stops, please visit the Tour Schedule Section down below.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to
win an awesome Dream Dog prize pack!! There
will be FIVE lucky winners!!! See below
for more details. Also, come back daily
to interact with Dixie and to increase your chances of winning!

Thanks for stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in this fabulous
giveaway!

How to Find Your Dream Dog

By Dixie Tenny

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GENRE:
Adult, Non-Fiction

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Bringing a new dog
into the household should be one of life’s happiest events. The process always
starts with excitement and high expectations. Too often, though, it ends in
disappointment. The new puppy wakes everyone three times a night, gnaws on
furniture, piddles everywhere, knocks the children down. The new adolescent dog
is too wild. The new adult dog growls at your neighbors. And where did all this
dog hair come from?

Most people spend
hours researching a new mattress, days researching a new car, and weeks
researching a new home or job. Yet for a new dog, a companion for the next
10-15 years, the most they do is visit the nearest shelter or pet shop and buy
whatever looks cute and appealing. It’s no wonder they end up disappointed.

Whether you are
looking for a purebred puppy or a charming mixed-breed, the type of dog you
bring into your home matters. A quiet owner will struggle to keep up with a
high-energy labrador mix, for instance, while an active outdoor family will be
impatient with a snoozy bulldog. And finding the right kind of dog means
becoming the right kind of owner—a task that takes some forethought and
planning.

How To Find Your
Dream Dog is here to fix the disconnect of dog ownership. It walks you
step-by-step through the process of choosing the right type of dog for you—not
only exploring the canine qualities that can determine your perfect puppy,
adolescent, or adult dog, but also assessing your lifestyle to make sure you’re
a good match for the dog, too. The book also looks at good (and bad) sources
for finding healthy and sound pet dogs, gives guidelines for evaluating
individual puppies, and warns of some red flags to watch out for during your
dog search. With this guidebook in hand, you can be confident that the next
puppy or dog you bring home will be the right companion and friend for you for
the rest of its days.

​Dixie Tenny is a
Certified Training Partner with the Karen Pryor Academy of Animal Training and
Behavior. During her 30+ years spent working with people and their pets, she
has seen again and again how mismatches between dog and owner can create
“behavior problems” that never would have happened if the right dog had been
matched to the right owner in the first place. She wrote this book to help
puppy buyers and dog adopters start out on the best possible foot with their
new pet dogs, and stay on that path for years to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR BIO:

Dixie
Tenny
has been helping people and their dogs find each other and form successful
partnerships since the early 1980s. She founded Purebred Dog Rescue of Saint
Louis in 1984, which as far as she knows was the country’s first organization
that combined the efforts of people who worked in rescue for many breeds under
the umbrella of one organization. After moving to Seattle, Washington, she
co-founded Seattle Purebred Dog Rescue, Inc. (SPDR) in 1987. She was involved
in running this organization for the better part of thirteen years. SPDR was
featured in the American Kennel Club Gazette, where Dixie was referred to as
the “Matriarch” of purebred rescue. SPDR, still operating successfully as of
this writing, utilizes hundreds of wonderful volunteers to work with several
thousands of dogs each year, with great success due to their rigorous evaluation
and placement policies and their use of specialized breed representatives. The
organization received an award from the Humane Society in Bellevue, Washington,
due to the fact that SPDR’s help in placing the shelter’s purebreds allowed
many more mixed breeds to be placed successfully as well. Dixie also received
the Seattle Kennel Club’s “Honor Our Own” award in 2001 for her work with SPDR.
Twice, Dixie has been the recipient of the Gaines Good Sportsmanship medal.

Back in St. Louis
in 2001, Dixie turned her attention to behavior and training. She was the
Director of Training for the Greater St. Louis Training Club, Inc., for five
years, creating classes and overseeing the work of 40 head and assistant
trainers. In 2003 she and another experienced trainer created Dogs Unleashed,
LLC. Dixie and her partner traveled to clients’ homes and worked with a wide
range of behavior and training issues for four years. During this time Dixie
attended many continuing education conferences featuring trainers such as Dr. Ian
Dunbar, Kathy Sdao, Karen Pryor, and Suzanne Clothier. As Director of Training
for GSLTC, Inc., Dixie arranged and hosted seminars in St. Louis featuring Dr.
Patricia McConnell, Sue Ailsby, Dr. Roger Abrantes, Nicole Wilde, and Leslie
Nelson of Tails-U-Win. During this period, Dixie also served for several years
as a Judge for the Dog Writers’ Association of America annual awards.

In 2010, Dixie
took the six-month course offered by the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal
Training and Behavior, and qualified to become a Certified Training Partner for
that organization. Dixie formed her own business, Human-Animal Learning
Opportunities, LLC (HALO) in 2013. HALO hosted continuing education seminars
for dog trainers, featuring Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz (three times), Mary Hunter
(twice), Celeste Walsen of Courthouse Dogs, and Steve White. Dixie is also a
Professional level member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, a
Certified Professional Dog Trainer - Knowledge Assessed, a founding member of
Saint Louis Pet Experts, and a Silver member of SPARCS (Society for the
Promotion of Applied Research in Canine Science). Dixie’s own continuing
education has included attending the annual conference put on by the
Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals (ORCA), which
features some of Dixie’s most respected animal trainers/researchers, including
Kay Laurence, Ken Ramirez, Dr. Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, Steve White, Alexandra
Kurland, and others. Dixie took Kay Laurence’s challenging two-year online
course, the Intelligent Dog Trainer Course (IDTC) in 2012-2013, and is proud to
have received Certification with Recommendation on her Unit 1 work. This book
and those that she hopes will follow came out of her Master Trainer project for
the Kay Laurence course.

Dixie has lived
with many dogs over the years, several mixed breeds as well as Australian,
German, and English Shepherds, Welsh, Cairn, and Airedale terriers, a Bernese
Mountain Dog, a Golden Retriever, and an Irish Wolfhound. Other pets have
included cats, birds, reptiles, hedgehogs, a beloved opossum, and more. Dixie
has shown some of her dogs in conformation and obedience trials, created and
taught Tricks classes, and dabbled in agility, K9 nose work, earthdog, and
rally obedience. While in Seattle, Dixie raised a labrador puppy for Canine
Companions for Independence, Inc. (CCI). Currently Dixie lives with a Beauceron
and an elderly Papillon, and a Somali, a Chantilly, and two Abyssinian cats.
When not doing things related to animals, she reads widely, enjoys the company
of her three grown children, follows baseball and English Premier League
football, and travels the world.

Dixie is awarding a fabulous Dream Dog prize
pack to FIVE lucky winners!! Each
package includes a copy of her featured book, “How to Find Your Dream Dog,” a
$15 Amazon Gift Card AND an Outward Hound Slow Feeder Dog Bowl)!! There will be five winners in total. This giveaway is ONLY open to USA and Canada
residents. This giveaway ends on April 8,
2017.

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and
Brunette is a registered host of iRead Book Tours. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not
Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and iRead Book Tours are solely
responsible for the giveaway prize.